Timestop
by kissfromarose9
Summary: Think 'House episode but with much more of a background story and superheroes rather than doctors,' stick with me and this summary will make more sense, promise! :
1. Prologue: There's still time

Timestop

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN STATIC SHOCK OR WARNER BROTHERS OR DC COMICS OR MARVEL COMICS OR LOST IN SPACE OR JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED OR ANY FAMOUS MOVIE OR CARTOON OR FRANCHISE THAT I REFERENCE IN HERE…NO SUE PLEASE…THX

& ENJOY

"5 ccs of thyceradryl, NOW! Kaya shouts, ripping white bandages with speed. Nurse! Elevate the feet; don't look at me like that-the administration for this medicine requires a certain circulation of the bloodstream, mind his head, now someone get me..."

Static cannot feel, cannot think right now for shock, _this can't be happening, no, no, it's my fault…_plays over and over in his head like a bad horror movie. He hears everyone around him at a distance as he stands right beside the friend Kaya and her assistant are trying to save. He hopes to help in some way, and yet he's more willing to run away and never come back. Kaya reads the charts in the opposite corner with a calm but serious face. There is a low hum and rush of voices, faces and adrenaline, and the air reeks of sterility, alcohol… and blood. Sweating bullets, Gear's best friend Static stands on the other side of where Kaya is working, watching a nurse slip an IV into the pale unmoving arm, still trying to fathom what happened. The monitors come to life with light droning. Gear would probably know what was wrong with them and how to make them run twice as better… Static's limbs feel like lead every time she tells him to do anything. Ever the healing apprentice, Kaya lets her training fall over the panic she feels when Gear doesn't improve. She tries every medical procedure available to improve Richie's steadily failing condition. '_Exhaust all the possibilities, all learned methods'_, she repeats to herself over the din, '_that idea is high risk-use that as a last resort'…_

"Is this really the heart rate?" she says incredulously, checking Richie's pulse herself after glancing back at the screens and the chart, "the fever should have been brought down more than this."

"An adaptation, maybe?" the nurse queries, eyeing the monitor as well.

" We'll have to find a way to slow the change", Kaya answers curtly, studying the wound "-Right, get more of the gauze, we can ebb the bleeding at the least." Kaya orders.

'_It may be time to use that', _she thinks…_God help us…not just yet…this has to work'_… The heart rate monitor drops to a low, cold pace, and Static feels the display screaming his friend's impending doom. Already the nurse had hurried over with two small metal plates, adjusting and testing them over a blond teen resting on the white table; if Richie wasn't paler than death, Virgil would assume he was in a deep sleep, but he was so still.

"Ma'am the paddles are inoperative." The nurse says automatically

"What?"

"Inoperative, ma'am, I think the tower has taken a hit to the core" the white-clad assistant repeats.

"Someone get in contact with J'onn-tell him to divert all the power he can spare to med bay, we've got a _serious case_!" Kaya yells over the confusion.

'_Alright',_ Kaya thinks. That sound alone had seemingly chained Static in his fury at himself, standing there unable to do… anything.

"Static, get OVER here, I need you...STATIC!"

Static jumps out of his thoughts and into action at the sound of her voice, and takes off a silver glove from his right hand, grateful for something to do to numb the pain.

"I need you with me and in control, or you know what might happen," Kaya starts. She takes in the monitors in the back, checking vital signs with impatience while shredding and moving what remains of Gear's shirt out of the way of his chest. Static knows what has to happen and just stares at her at first, pain etched in his face.

"Will you do it for Richie's sake, Virgil?" she says softly. The silence cuts away at the thread holding onto Gear's chances of survival.

"…yes."

"Alright, one hand here on the left just above the chest, the other one here on the right, now, do you know how one volt feels?"

"Yea" Static responds achingly. He wanted to protest somehow, but his tongue stuck in the roof of his mouth, and the reason for holding back disappeared with his coming closer to the patient. At this point he cannot stand to be so close to Gear's face, it looked gaunt and less like his living friend every passing second.

"Absolutely no more than 60 volts, even considering the bang baby makeup he's very fragile- ready, and clear" she says, holding an oxygen mask already for respiration. Static, through the confusion, dimly appreciates how good of a healer she is.

Gear's chest jumps lightly with the shock, his head lolling to the side, and Static feels his own heart drop to his stomach, ready to puke both of them up while watching his own actions. He mechanically follows her orders without question, and Richie's chest yields again and again to the shocks, with no response. He doesn't know what's happening anymore. He can hear nothing. Not even his own breathing.

"C'mon Gear, you've got it in you, stay with us..." Kaya pleads under her breath as she gives him oxygen. Static could see the tears forming in her eyes; he looks back at Gear, wishing he could turn back time… time…_time…_


	2. A small price to pay

"V!" "yo, V man!" Richie shouts, pelting the dreded teen's head with a piece of chalk.

"Hunh? Wazzat? Aw come on Rich, don't get mad… my eyelid inspection is seriously lacking" Virgil grumbles with a yawn. The two were hanging out at what had once described as the "abandoned gas station of solitude". Gear had insisted it was formally "HQ", and that Virgil witness his "greatest discovery in the history of human kind and also probably this dimension" right after school today, after a _short _explanation of how he had come across it-Richie had been talking since 4:02, and Virgil's new digital watch now glared the numbers 6:17.

"I was up as late as you were, Virg, and anyway your homework is something I could do in my sleep, and I did so you could listen to this- you're welcome, moving on …

"Hey, but-"

"In summation", he resounds over whatever Virgil wanted to say, " I have found the method of stabilizing the repolarizing magnetic fields of Earth, and all I need is a medium so that (a), your powers won't disappear _or _destroy us all, and (b) the League will have to inspect my methods for themselves, which means I may have to report to the watchtower for this and a lot of other things-then they'll have no choice but to consider accepting me into the league when I'm older! Isn't this _awesome_!" Gear yells excitedly and fast, now standing on top of his shabby swiveling chair.

"Hey, man, this is awesome, but you didn't have to do that to get accepted into the league, with your IQ-shoot, at this point I wouldn't even join if they didn't let you in, too. Those control freaks could get along without us to push around like the rookies they think we are" Virgil adds with a scowl.

Gear laughs, "Dude, you know you would team up with the Justice League even if they called you on a mission to rescue every cat stuck in a tree in the tri-state area, and you know I would too"

Virgil stands up from the couch and concedes "alright, got me on that one, oh hey, about my powers, is this gonna be like those sunspots with my every touch blasting stuff apart?" Virgil asks, not anticipating the answer.

"Nah, with any luck, I can anticipate with certain formulas where the fields realign and how powerful the bursts of magnetism are," Richie begins to trail off in thought from the conversation, "and we can make plans to divert the power or"…(he now stares into space at his chalkboard) "and counter the troughs…with…with an amp device! That's it! Virg, you're a genius!" Richie shouts clapping Virgil on the shoulder, and with that he sprints to the lab table, already soldering and typing at the same time.

"See, now who's gonna save their buts from "cyber-threats" if not you?" Virgil rises again from the couch, stretching his arms to the busted ceiling fan while looking over his shoulder at his forgotten backpack on the table.

"Hey, if its cool with you, I'm goin out to meet Daisy, I bet she would need my help more than you, I would probably just get in your way, and with that welding incident…"

"Un-huh" Richie mumbles, too entranced with his new idea to notice anything in the real world.

"Yea, well, catch you later Rich" Virgil answers, his left foot already out of the door.

"Later" Richie mumbles again.

The rest of the evening went smoothly, with Richie pouring over new planes of physics theories to make the new amplifier work Virgil no longer tied to hero business, and could spend that night with Daisy at a new movie. She was already outside the Parks Theatre to meet him in that red jacket and pretty jean skirt of hers, and man did she smell good…like sunshine and apples. He could be next to her holding her hand through the rest of the night without sleeping for days, subsisting on that salty, over-priced popcorn as long as he could look at her. Daisy leaned in to kiss _him_ this time after the movie, and he had to calm down before he shorted out the nearest streetlight walking back to his house, as his imagination shifted into overdrive and soared off into a ballroom, with Daisy in a white dress…and holding pretty magnolias and roses and …and he could picture in his mind that question _'Daisy…what I mean is I... will you...?_' Whoa. '_Time out_.' He hadn't thought about that before. Frankly, a girl should be…Daisy should be…thinking about this kind of stuff, right? _'I'm a guy for crying out loud!'_ thinks Virgil vehemently to his own mind. The enormous blush washed over his face. On second thought, _was_ she thinking about that? About him, the same way? Virgil rubbed the back of his neck in irritation and walked on. He could see Richie already rolling on the floor in mirth if he mentioned it. They were only in high school after all. "Man points down 30 notches..." grumbled Virgil under his breath as he came to his house. He laughed it off coming into his room. Finally slipping off his socks, he fell into bed. _'Time for shut-eye.'_ As perfect as that starry, moonless, calm, crimeandbangbabyfree night was, it was nothing compared to the only decent night of sleep he had that week. He was sad that it left with the sentry at his bedside table demanding his morning wakeup call with sharp buzzing; promptly, he smashed its snooze button, dozing off for a few minutes before finally waking up for school.

That morning, Richie was waiting by Virgil's locker to drown his ears in progress he had made. Virgil humored him, even asking him questions about how to activate the device during history, and all the while thinking that he shouldn't have to have a good night's sleep to be so patient.

"And the new capacitor is twice as efficient with this kind of routing…" Richie adds, with an enormous yawn, he smiles sleepily while leaning back in his chair, eyes closed and completely oblivious to everything. He leans so far back that the chair starts to give way to gravity when Virgil catches it.

"Yo Rich, wake up" Virgil whispers, shaking Richie's shoulder. He slumps a little more before jerking up, declaring "'m awake, no prob…em", then slamming his head forward and down on the desk into his folded arms.

"Rich, how late did you stay up last night?" Virgil asks worriedly, pulling him up again in time for Mr. Hodsten's eyes to pass over their desks. Richie looks at him blearily through tired red eyes.

"Late enough, I'm already modifying version C of the device, and the first and second ones were not as pretty, let me tell you" he says, and rolls up his sleeve, showing Virgil his crudely bandaged arm.

"Whoa, Rich, what-"

"The first version exploded when I activated it with electricity, that's what," he explains with a disgruntled look, but laughs "a small price to pay for the advancement of science," at Virgil's reaction "besides, the next version will be at least 38% more efficient" he ends confidently, turning to face the board.

"I don't know about this Rich, I've seen you get no sleep because of patrol and you still didn't bat an eye through Mr. Hodstens' most boring lectures, you're more tired than that, now what's really goin on with this thing?" Virgil shot back.

Richie raises his eyebrows at this, then, frowning like a kid who got caught with a cookie jar and a crumb mustache, he admits "okay…the energy source is called endalite, and the thing is unstable, like _unstable_ unstable, as in it could very well have altering effects on any living subject's _DNA_ _sequence_…I came across this form of it about five weeks ago with the case about modified ground minerals and insects from the bang baby gas…the league gave me a sample from South America in general concern for any hazardous chemicals, hearing of my breakthrough of the "cure" for "the cure" for bang baby gas. Only this one is too old to be a result of the gas…I ran tests and more tests and the results turned out to be too volatile to ignore…its amazing as a power source…too amazing…which is why I had to turn it back over to the league, and they told me not to tell anyone (anyone but you by the way, because they knew I would). When I began testing, from the first time I touched it, the thing started to…drain me…I could never figure out what this thing was draining me of, but I always felt so…um…I would describe it as…empty, like I didn't even feel tired, sad, happy, angry or anything …like it fed on me, and then every time I stored it, I found my strength agai-"

"-I told you the league needs you, why else would they let you have this stuff! Rich, you shouldn't have kept any, and you shouldn't play around with it, whatever it is it's seriously bad news if something goes wrong!" Virgil hisses back under his breath.

"Look, I know," Richie whispers anxiously as soon as Hodsten turns back to the board, "but the league still needs data on the compound, I've made too much progress already, and this thing might be the key to bringing the repolarization around, who knows _what_ crime spree might break out in Dakota if word gets out that Static is out of the picture! Besides, all it does is make me tired, nothing else to any of my systems, I checked…maybe if the amp doesn't work, I can sell it to a sleeping pill company or something."

"Bro, this thing is still a bad idea…"

"Well, when you find a better one let me know." says Gear heatedly, turning back to his notes.


	3. Danger Will Robinson, Danger!

Class ends, and both of them come back to the gas station to find Batman standing just behind one of the pumps; both of them run to him, suspecting big trouble if the league had to call them again.

"Batman? What's goin on?" Static asks, hoping for a mission to take his mind off of things.

"You might have guessed that the endalite sample you gave us came from an unusual source" The Dark Knight explains, "that sample was taken from a landing site for a small meteor; three of our scientists were excavating it when the entire area became protected with an impenetrable shield 11 hours and 46 minutes ago. All attempts by the League to get into the shield to recover them have failed, and we want any intel you have to give us on this phenomenon, being one of the few with access to the sample"

Richie stares into blank space, at a loss for words, thinking about the time the shield had appeared, the electricity, the faintness he had felt, the glow…it made sense, it connected somehow, there were just pieces missing, but…how? Gear now squints into another direction and is silently lost in many converging thoughts; Static covers for him with questions about endalite and who came in contact with it.

"You want us to try to get through this barrier?" he asks excitedly. Batman nods

"Or find a way of contacting the scientists" he adds

"Sweet!" Static exclaims, then cutting off with: "-I mean, yeah we're up to it. Wait-how many scientists are in that shield? Were they okay last time you guys checked?"

"Three, the nature of their condition is unknown, but from the last contact it seems that a one Alan Strong has disappeared. He was an apprenticed scientist working for the league, about your age. What actually happened is unclear because the transmission became compromised upon the formation of the barrier."

"And, just where is this site?" Static questions again

"Brazil, just north of the Amazon rainforest. Needless to say we don't want to draw any more attention to it even where it is, so our cloaking and reconnaissance members will be with us" Batman responds while pressing his earpiece, "three for transport" he commands in his polished tone. The three end up in one of the empty guest rooms of the Watchtower.

"I had everything else beamed up, and I take it backpack has the research downloaded, so suit up and come to the conference room when you two are ready" with that, Batman walks out with the electronic door sliding smoothly behind him.

"Whoa, guess we should hurry, right?" Static says with enthusiasm

"Yeah" Richie agrees, turning to the research on the desk

About ten minutes later, the two are packed and ready to go in the conference room where Superman is addressing the members already.

"We'll be beaming down shortly, so just to clarify so that everyone knows, this thing is powerful whatever it is, and should be considered dangerous, handle it with extreme caution but fight only to defend, we want to make a good impression, so I expect the best manners…" he looks at Static and Gear "from all of you to the visiting…force, but trust your instincts and stay in contact as much as possible, let's go"

The party beams down to the south of Earth's surface, right at the site of the shield, and what a shield it is.

"We measured it from the tower to be at least 1000 kilometers in length, five hundred meters high… and it's growing." Batman says curtly, addressing everyone's thoughts.

The bubble glared a neon blue flash in the sunlight, giving it the look of something distinctly out of place, the gaudy plastic toy on a grassy lawn. Gear seemed eerily drawn to the huge bubble and immediately walked towards it with his hand slightly outstretched and held steady, as though the bubble were a horse known to throw its riders.

"Have you found out what this thing is made of?" he asks, letting his hand rest on the wall of morphing blue glass.

"All attempts at penetrating that bubble have been made, but it doesn't behave like the endalite our sensors make it out to be. Superman and half the league has punched it, I used the hardest alloys known to man, John hit it with lantern core energy, and even Shiara couldn't disrupt it enough to break through with her mace. Everyone was exhausted after they tried" Batman explains, "and no attempt at contact by telepathy has been successful either."

"Then how are we supposed to help?" asks Static, his eyes lost in the swirling glass of the bubble.

"Gear made the most progress in studying the endalite, so we would like to hear any suggestions he has about-"

Before Batman could finish his sentence, Gear had passed his hand through the transparent wall, recoiling with an immediate shout. He held his left hand gingerly in his right, panting and staring at the giant barrier, letting a low "whoa!" escape his lips.

"Gear! Are you outta your skull! What did that thing-is your hand-" Static sputters as he runs over to him, now getting really nervous about this entire mission. Batman observes the reaction from a distance, too curious to say anything just yet.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," Gear reassures Static, getting up from the ground. "It wasn't too hot, it was cold-real cold, but more than that, like a shock of adrenaline… or fear…backpack was monitoring and he's got so much data that I can't pin it down, but whatever it is, it was surprised to see me…" Gear carefully walks toward the bubble again, slowly reaching for the wall of glass. Slowly this time, he put his hand through the barrier as gently as he could, letting the surface break in waves; the bubble cleaved open at his touch like obsidian.

"Hey Static, this is awesome, dude! See if you can do it too!" Gear laughs, now drawing a smiley face in the wall and watching it disappear.

"Yeah, uh sure, why not?" Static says uneasily, putting his fingers to the glass and passing them through. "Hey, this is kinda cool, it's like that movie with the clawed robot and the mutant chameleon monkey…"digresses Static as he tests the alien fence.

"Oh yea, 'danger Will Robinson, danger!'" Gear jokes in his best impression of the robot, clearly getting a kick out of playing with the sinister blockade.

"As much fun as you're having, would you like to tell me how you're able to do this?" Batman asks behind him, crossing his arms. Gear quickly moves his hand out of the wall, which reforms without any mark of his hand having been there, and turns around to answer Batman's annoyed look with a newly regained professional demeanor.

"I've been thinking about that and I _think _I have an answer: this field is from a source of endalite, and the endalite I had was taking energy from me somehow. There is something about my energy signature that it accepts, and if this thing accepts me because of that, I can conclude that endalite energy is collective, that it collects all of its energy inside there somewhere. That's explains why I can get through it: it's finitely made of my signature, and why it's so strong a barrier: it has accepted energy from many different beings and made a defense barrier to protect itself out of the protective energies. But what I can't understand is why the barrier formed when it took my energy, why it would need a barrier in the first place, and why Static and I have access to the barrier while the other people who fed its energies don't."

"Interesting theory, but we have the priority of rescuing those scientists, and right now, you two are the only ones who can pass through the wall, so, are you up to it?" Batman says.

"We're up to the job" says Richie cheerfully –"don't worry doctor, it's just like stepping between two rooms!" he adds to Static's unsure face. He jumps headlong into the swirling bubble, with Backpack's silver hull shining behind him.

"Did I mention how much I didn't like that movie?" Static grumbles, following Gear into the icy cold bubble with a pair of com link earpieces from Batman and a small pack of his own. As soon as his body enters the bubble, it feels like going through a vertical surface of dense, dark water while keeping the ability to breathe, and emerging to the other side feels like a breath of air is rushed down his throat.

"Man, was that a headtrip or what?" Gear says drowsily upon Virgil's entrance, already sitting down on a mossy boulder. He shakes his head like a diver with swimmer's ear, trying to shake off the effects as much as Virgil, who leans on a tree, taking in the jungle scenery.

"J'onn, come in." Virgil says into the com link "come in J'onn, J'onn? Batman, do you read? Anybody?" Static asks, trying all signals and then juicing the device with electricity, "hello?" he tries again. "So much for staying in contact. Guess we're on our own."

"Now that we're here" Gear says "we should scope it out, just in case we can't get back in."

" Yeah-hey Rich, I got a question" Virgil says

"Shoot, bro"

"How come I can get through that barrier too? I mean, I didn't even touch the enda-whoozit and I got through without a Thanagarian pickaxe or something-why me?"

"I have a new theory" Richie groans, picking himself up from the boulder and stretching his legs, "the barrier formed the minute I touched that endalite because of the bang baby modification in my genes, once it adapted, it used the ability to actualize its thoughts into tangible things, like Dwane's abilities or Madeline Spalding's brain control that resulted from the gas. As far as I know, I was the only bang baby to come into contact with the endalite. Bang baby gas has a special transferable nature unlike many other alien structures, so when it absorbed me for the first time, it could absorb other energies with more speed as a bang baby does, energies like Superman's strength that went into the force field. But as long as it utilizes the bang energy, it connects with us on that same plane, giving us the power to pass through the bubble."

"If that's true, then can any bang baby go through the wall?" Static asks.

"In theory yeah, but it's still a theory, maybe this thing has a glitch or maybe it just likes us. Let's go! I want to reach the middle of this thing, see if I can find what makes it tick." Gear jogs into the forest, his eyes bright with curiosity.

"Hey, wait up!" shouts Static, tagging behind him on the glowing purple hover disk. _Gear's gotten weird today, _he thinks to himself_, I hope it doesn't have anything to do with that endalite…_


	4. First Meetings

Richie navigates the green labyrinth of clingy vines, tangled undergrowth and tall trees as though it were his own backyard, disappearing and reappearing for 20 minutes at a time before reemerging to Static's bird's eye view; he stops suddenly, signaling for Virgil to come down into a small clearing with the shock vox .

"Static, down here"

As soon as Static lands, Gear pulls him behind a very large fern with him, looking through the leaves with a worried expression on his face.

"Gear, what-"

"Shhhh! Not so loud bro, look over there" he whispers. Static looks into the hedge in front of him, and his eyes find a clearing with three figures, two on one side closest to Static and Gear and one in the distance. Of the pair, one is a girl about their age, taking a defensive stance next to an older man that didn't look over 25, with a stance mirroring hers; the man looks unblinkingly into the eyes of a ghostly white figure ahead of them. Virgil takes in his entire figure and concludes that he looks like Obi-Wan Kenobi with shorter hair. The girl wears a dark blue shirt with flowing sleeves and a darker grey wrap skirt that streams over black gauchos, with the strap of a small pack slung over her chest to her hip. Her hair is dark brown and short, beaded with silver against her pale skin. The thing in front of both of them is a slight and lucid pure white figure of a teen boy that, if you looked closely, wore jeans and a loose t-shirt, and had unruly sliver hair that almost covered his empty, dead-looking eyes.

"Alan." The girl whispers in a terrified voice. "What are you and what did you do to him? Tell us what you did or ELSE!" the girl then commands in a voice that all but shakes the forest. Gear, embarrassed at his ill-timed unconscious thoughts at this dangerous situation, feels a twinge of disappointment, thinking '_dang, she's taken…'_

"Be alert, Kaya this being is sinister, I don't sense many human attributes that remain" the man chides, as though he were teaching a physics lesson. The girl sighs, closing her eyes, replacing her bluish amethyst irises with purely dark ones and taking an offensive stance; she then parrots his calm tone, raising an open hand in front of her toward the ghostly being.

"Yes, master Jonah" Kaya answers, steadily now and with more control. Before Static can blink again she rushes the ghostly attacker and jumps high into the air, pulling the shadows out of the trees behind her to strike inches in front of the vision with a sound like a gunshot, flashing spurts of light and shadow. She lands and the ghost vanishes to appear in front of Jonah, who spirals backward to avoid a strike that targets his head; he jabs the ghost in the jaw before it can use its hands to give another blast, and continues to fight it with rhythmic speed, like an expert martial artist. The ghostly figure's strikes flare a blinding light that passes like lightning, leaving deafening sound and explosions like small bombs. Gear and Static come out of hiding at this point before Kaya and Jonah can get any more hits in, and the two fighters seem pleased, albeit surprised, with their appearance. The ghost delivers a blow which Static dodges and it hits Gear in the side of the head; he fiercely pulls his helmet off and throws it on the ground to hastily tie a loose green mask around his eyes. Kaya looks at Gear for the first time without his mask. '_These Earth boys-no one told me before that they would be so-when I got here they were so-can't focus at all when they're so…so…'This one has the …how do you say it here?... "cutest" blond hair…' _she thinks dreamily all in that moment. Gear returns her gaze with a huge blush creeping over his pale skin. _'She's looking at…me?' _he thinks, and nervously looks back at the ghost and taking out an orange, close range laser and clamping it to his wrist; he had assembled it quickly with extra time he had when he had engineer's block in making the new versions of the amp. Richie felt relieved that there was something he could do. Being a crude version of the amp, the laser used endalite as a power source also, and it might have been the only thing that will work against any endalite weapon they might encounter, so he decided to take it. Back in reality the ghost comes at them again. Partially in defense and partially in a fit of showing off, Kaya jumps over the head of the white figure, flipping over to deliver a kick to the head, but her leg passes through it like vapor and she lands like a cat five feet away from it; she tries to weaken it by making quick jabs with more and more speed, but the vision defers the blows with lighted bursts, finally giving a bone-cracking blow to her shoulder. Kaya is thrown over the trees into the brush far away from the scene, and Gear hurries after her. The ghost travels as quickly as light, gliding across the ground, and leaps into the ground, to emerge in front of Jonah and Static.

"You hit 'em low..." Static starts with fists of lightning ready

"Right." Jonah answers. Static aims a full blast at the creature's head, making it veer backward in it's translucent pain, while Jonah dives below it with an upward attack; he pulls his hand back to strike, looking at the ghost with what looked like confusion. The vision disappears from human sight wielding an energy burst in the form of a dagger. It's too fast.

"AAAAAAAAAAUUUUGH!"

'_master Jonah'_ Kaya thinks, pulling herself up from the broken branches. Jonah falls forward with a blurring light gleaming in his side like the ghost, landing with a dull thud on the ground in front of Static. Gear emerges from the wood first, Kaya having told him to go back, and that she was fine. He corners the vision with an orange, close range laser, and hits the vision with the beam that makes it vanish in retreat with a leering glare, now observing that it is outmatched. It had looked at Richie with confusion and rage before it left, not the stone cold look it had earlier. Gear watches it disappear in the same spot, with a look of terror and awe. Was that thing-human?

Static turns Jonah over, and listens for a pulse despite what he sees on Jonah's chest; the wound is smaller than he thought, but it was bleeding profusely. '_That thing must have hit an artery' he_ thinks to himself. He wasn't a doctor, but he was sure that the wound was not supposed to bleed as it did or turn a greenish yellow and then pink so fast. By miracle, Jonah is still breathing as his apprentice comes out of the trees.

"Master Jonah!" Kaya calls out, running toward the scene with her shoulder in hand, and before Static and the gravely wounded man, she stops with a gasp and stares, her face blank. She kneels beside him, taking in his form and his face with her brows pulled into a scowl as if she didn't understand. As a healing apprentice, she already knows what to expect, however, she does not stop trying to do what she can for Jonah. Then after a few minutes, almost cold heartedly, she does not even look at his face as she tries to make him comfortable.

"Kaya…" Jonah begins

"Please, master, I d-don't want to cause you any more pain, you don't need to…" Kaya says gently, her voice cracking. Slowly, he takes her hand in his for silence, and she complies instantly, turning her head and listening only to him.

"…do… you remember when I told you about this day?"

"That…I would have the courage to face what comes? Yes- yes, how could I forget that?" she says with a numb smile for his peace of mind. "I will find Alan, master," she says suddenly with fierce resolution "and make sure he's OK, I won't stop until I've found…"

He squeezes her hand again, so she can hear his words.

"I knew you could…find…the courage." Jonah sighs, and with one more breath, the lids of his eyes close permanently on the small face streaming with tears above him.


	5. To take the dark away so light can shine

Kaya takes a small crystalline dagger out of the latch on her left shoe that night, and throws it with precision into the solid earth in front of the handmade tombstone. Static looks from Kaya to the entrancingly beautiful knife; the blade looked like it was emblazoned with an alien silver, and it shined like no other metal he had seen. '_That knife must have been worth something_,' he thinks, '_I wonder what it meant to her…'_ She never asked for any help with Jonah's burial, but she did let Static and Gear comfort her with their presence.

"I think it's impolite to leave someone out of the loop, even concerning someone's death." Kaya says steadily, her eyes closed "I will not say it is what Jonah would have wanted, because that may become a disguise for my own wishes, but I think," she opens her eyes now and looks at Virgil and Richie "he would have liked you two… enough for me to tell you what he meant to me…you may not think it important, but…".

Both Richie and Static seat themselves on either side Kaya to form a triangle in front of a small fire to listen to her story. Kaya smiles sheepishly at their willingness to listen, guilty that they would have to bear her deep sorrow on just meeting her. She hoped inwardly that they wouldn't have grim memories of her and that she could have a chance to be so kind to them.

"When Master Jonah took me in, I was very small, and my parents had died already in the fighting on our planet. My homeworld Aorthia is a war-zone now, and it has been for three of your earth centuries. Master Jonah was an ambassador from planet Earth's Justice League, a missionary of peace. He took me in and raised me, and taught me his fighting style for defense, setting reason and justice above it. He was the one who taught our village the ways of peace and defense, and it became a thriving stronghold. But before that, on one day, when I was around five years old in earth years, the fighting grew so terribly that the soldiers reached our house, and my master Jonah took on all of those soldiers, while I stayed inside hidden in the secret linen cupboard, crying my eyes out for fear of loosing him too, like my parents. _Come back, please come back, please come back_, was all I said in my head, not even caring about what was happening. When he did come back, I ran and hugged him. We climbed our favorite tree in the backyard and sat on the lowest branch-it was a short tree, just my size, and he let me hug him and cry until I couldn't anymore. Never before had I been able to cry with someone watching and not be punished for it-on my homeworld, a strong female doesn't cry. Then he asked me 'Kaya, why are you crying?' and I said 'I was afraid you had died, master'. He looked at me and said 'To die is natural, just like pain, you need only to realize that and you can find the courage to defeat it.' And then, I promised 'I will be courageous enough to defeat death when it comes for me or you, master! I'll make sure you're safe when you're with me.' He only laughed and let me hug him again." she finishes, her face flickering in the glow. Static had come to sit beside her, as did Gear, only a little closer, knowing how it felt to loose a parent so suddenly. Even if what they stood for remained with you, the hole in your chest …is still painful.

"Only now, when I think about…him…I realize… that he meant to accept death with honor, and not avoid it, to think of others first is… to defeat death. I-It just…", she brushes yet another tear from her cheek,… "hurts, like pain, it's just…n-natural….Why does the answer always come too late?" she sobs now, seeming too timid to look back at the blonde earth boy who looked worried…about her. His face is kind and understanding, like someone who spends much of their time trying to listen, and not just to hear. Instead of returning his glance she cries into Static's arms because he is closer at this point, and he hugs her back, wishing that he could sink into the forest floor. The fire crackles and fades into the night as Gear stares into it, thinking intently.

"… _please come back…please come back, Alan…"_

...

"…And I'm just sorry we had to meet like this- really," Kaya says as the three heroes move through the forest the next morning. The three had fallen asleep around the gentle fire, and Kaya was a fast healer and an even faster medic. She, Static and Gear had not left yet when her shoulder started to feel good enough to be taken out of the makeshift sling.

"…this was such an exiting discovery at first; the endalite could be a medical miracle in the right form, at least that's what Jonah said" Kaya continues.

She could say his name…why was she able to say Jonah's name so soon? Aorthians were less attached to the idea of loss the way earth beings were, but, something about last night, the way she was able to bare her soul and have not one but two friends whose names she didn't even need to know to be there for her, acted as a very soothing bandage on her aching heart. Static and Gear were just full of life, their presences spoke for themselves as a wellspring of feeling light at heart. Kaya could appreciate that now more than ever.

Gear marvels at the way Kaya moves through the brush, grabbing an overhead branch to swing in acrobatic form and land at least nine feet in front of where his pace led him like a pro-skater with little flurries of shadow coming off of her heels.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, how'd you get your powers and where can I get one?" Gear queries politely.

Kaya smiles and her face lights up in what he suspects as a blush.

"On my home planet, there are not many lightning storms, but when there are, it's an amazing sight. When I was about four years younger I had taken sick and could not attend the Leinaden, our lightning festival down in the nearby village. On the day of the festival everyone picnics in shelters and watches the lightning race across the sky. So…very frustrated…I snuck out with a blanket and some hot chocolate and ran up to the top of the tallest hill I could find in the forest to watch it instead. It was beautiful. And it hit me, whatever it was, I believe it was the lightning that struck me, only it was a strange black lightning-it took me about three days to recover, and when I did, I found out that I could manipulate the negative energies of the objects around me" Kaya explains.

"Whoa, so when you took the shadows from the trees-"

"Yea, it was the leaf shadows that did the work, and the light. That's why I can manipulate shadows only, but I affect light too, because when I take away everything that's dark surrounding it the place just lights up" she says cheerfully.

"Awesome!" Static and Gear agree with their exchanged looks.

"Well, as long as we're this close, we may as well look at this endalite source." Gear says as they proceed further into the heart of the growth, swatting a branch out of his face.

"Agreed, but with the purpose in mind to neutralize these effects the endalite has on people, or even destroy it if necessary" Kaya says, jumping from one large smoothed stone in her path to another.

"Alright you two, but we've got to find some way to contact the league first, they gotta know what we're up against before we go ring the doorbell, and it's been a day already" Static says, looking at his watch. The digital face read 12:35, but it seemed as though they had been walking for hours since they left camp. Could the endalite be affecting time? He didn't want to ask Richie, thinking it was a stupid idea. This core messed with a lot, but it couldn't really freeze time or something like that. That wasn't what it was for…Why would it? He kept glancing at his watch, still puzzled. _'When this is over,'_ he vowed to himself, _'I'm gonna try to get more sleep.'_

Kaya nods at Static's proposition. "The man has a point; you two keep looking for that source, and I will get to the league. What direction did you two enter the field?"

"Due north" answers Gear "start over by that flat face of rock and follow it, it takes you about two-thirds of the way, but watch out for the jaguars, they're feisty this time of year" he jokes. Kaya smiles again, for some reason, she feels so happy when Gear talks to her about… anything. She vaguely wonders whether this blonde one is spoken for.

"Wait, how are you going to get through that bubble?" Static asks her.

" Oh, I have an idea" she sings, and walking over to Richie, she plants a small kiss on his unsuspecting lips, remembering that it was the Earthly sign of affection from her studies, declaring "I wish you the best of luck, I will be back as soon as I can. You both are so joyous, you give me so much hope," she says, looking into Static's eyes after ward "so do not lose it in this forsaken place", and she flies into the brush with speed.

All Static can say is "Hey dude…what are you thinking?" (he stares from Kaya's tall figure in the distance to Gear a couple times before finally getting it)

"Alien chicks are awesome?" Gear sighs, putting his arms behind his head as he turns bright crimson.

"Come on Romeo, we've got a job to do" Static teases as Gear looks overhead like he's staring at the watchtower's mainframe, an absent, goofy expression still on his face.

"Alright, give me a minute, my legs still feel like jell-o" says Gear, moving after the purple trail of electricity with a small screened beeping device in hand, " whoa- hey bro, we're finally within 500 meters of the core!"

"Should we know it when we see it?" Static says, levitating somewhat while scanning over the tall trees.

"Don't think so, it's at least that far below us too, there has to be a way of going underground…a switch or some kind of passage …I was thinking about the endalite energy, and -Static, DUCK!"

Static ducked backward matrix-style with one arm reaching to the rock behind him before the flash of light could graze his chest

"Hey Casper! Didn't 'cha momma ever tell you it's not nice to hit people?" Static banters, shooting back a burst of magnetism toward the shaggy-haired ghost, who stalls under the magnetic field. The vision now acknowledges Gear, who had taken out the orange laser in defense, with an empty stare.

"Alan?" Gear says warily

The ghost stays his outreached hand, looking curiously back at Gear with an expression that was still blank somehow, as Gear slowly holds up his laser in a gesture of surrender.

"You can trust us, we're friends, okay? Friends of the Justice League, friends of Kaya." The ghost teen raises its eyebrows and frowns in disbelief at the mention of Kaya's name; Gear continues "we can help you break away from the endalite, just keep trying, fight its control, you can-"

The ghost doubles over in what looks like terrible pain as it tries to resist the will of the endalite, finally straightening up to reach its hand toward Richie, this time squinting its terrible eyes, trying to restrain the energy flowing toward his fingers.

"Look, Alan I don't want to hurt you, and don't think you really want to hurt me" Richie pleads, now dropping the laser.

"Gear, don't put up your weapon, it's too fast" Static says, moving in front of Gear to electrify his hands against the vision. Alan's hand is trembling violently now with the force of the endalite. As soon as Static had moved in front of Gear, the white image squinted its eyes in disbelief. _'This human bothers to protect another? Why? Earth is indeed an anomaly. Did the green one not deserve the consequence of death if he so risked his life knowing what would happen? What would the purple one gain?' _the voice in Alan's head says to his subconscious, '_if the green one is so foolish and so weak that he needs to be defended, he should be eliminated, as in the natural order of things. The stronger lives.' _

"_Hey!" _said Alan in response to the ominous voice in his head. He could still control his body, and allow the endalite to take over if he wanted."_I don't want to kill anybody else, I just want to be in charge! If you keep making me kill people, no one will want to listen to or follow me! One death will be hard enough to cover already!"_

'_Earth beings follow ideals.' _ the being snaps back '_The smarter ones pick ideals that will further their own existence and the comfort of that existence. For this ideal to work, no one will be allowed to question it. Complete authority for everyone to make their own wishes come true, and you ruling over all of it. Does that not suit your request?' _

"_Yea, but-"_

'_Will you allow this one to take away your wishes, the wishes of so many that can come true with you in charge?' _

"_No, but"_

'_Because that's exactly what he will prevent'_

"_He wants to talk" _

'_His words are for his own interest. He will not listen to reason. To you.'_

"_I…" _

'_Do it now'_

"_I…" _

'_NOW!' _

"**STATIC!"**

A blinding light breaks loose from the hand, Alan's glaring eyes lighting up with the energy powerful enough to distort time.


	6. You have to protect them now

As she flits through the trees, Kaya's mind flashes back to a self-defense lesson with Master Jonah as she mulls over how to stop the effects of the endalite. Her eyes glaze over and she becomes thirteen again, in the middle of a sparring match, where Jonah was constantly outwitting her strikes with blinding speed.

_She falls down to her knees with a huff as he catches her from the side, and she stares at the floor, panting from exhaustion._

"_I'm not fast enough to beat you, master" she sighs impatiently, trying to stand up already with wobbly legs._

"_The lightning strike was just a month ago, and whenever I try to will my powers to do something, it does the opposite. What kind of superpower doesn't listen to you? What good is it?"... "What good am I?" she adds despondently._

"_That strike has changed your physical abilities," says Master Jonah sagely, "the abilities that are easily affected by the seasons, disease, heat and cold, and many other things. But this I know for certain: you must not ignore your physical opponents, nor run away from them, you must instead counter their attacks with the same amount of courage and hope, the same amount of love, and you will overcome them. I have high hopes for you; even time stops to the tune of love."_

"_So I'll stop bad guys by hugging them or something?" Kaya asks, searching his eyes for an answer she could understand._

"_Nooo", he chides patiently with an amused smile "love, in this sense, means learning to let go of the fear of your own safety or peace of mind for the sake of another person's welfare. Make no mistake," he proclaims, sitting her down on the sparring mat with him "this is not easy; the most rewarding deeds are the ones where you not only are unrecognized for what you've done, but are punished for it, and yet you still do the right thing. And you can start by cleaning yourself up and sweeping the living room."_

"_Awwwww man-."_

"_Kaya" he says sternly_

_Kaya smiles halfheartedly, and chirps "Yes, sir", getting her hair ruffled by his hand as she races for the broom first._

Time rushes back to the present and Kaya bolts toward the approaching barrier, still without a plan B should her idea fall to pieces. And puffy red eyes. The border is now inches from her hand, which she gently rests on the glassy wall. Taking a deep breath to gain focus, she wills her shadowy energy to cover her entire body and reaches for the wall, concentrating on standing exactly where she is with peace rather than bursting through it to freedom. Her left hand passes, along with her right, one leg and then her entire body goes through the bubble, and she is practically thrown out of the other side, her heart racing as though she just went skydiving. '_Amazing, it worked! I knew it!'_ she thinks as she gets up from this sore landing with half a smile. Remembering her mission she starts with a steady pace to look for league members, but the league finds her first. After her explanation, Green Lantern, Batman and The Martian join her in a specialist ground party to find Alan and meet up with Gear and Static to destroy the core from the inside, while the rest waits in cavalry after the field is down.

"Given the situation, you understand that the first priority is taking down that core, right?" the Lantern questions Kaya

"Yes sir, I understand"

"Even before the safety of Static and Gear, alright?"

"But, the best attempt will have to be made before we-"

"Alright?"

"Yes, sir. The core comes first."

The group cuts its way through in the barrier in a shield of Kaya's, who leads the party swiftly through the jungle, desperately hoping that Virgil and Richie are alright. Batman and Green Lantern follow Kaya as J'onn takes a bird's eye view above them.

"Kaya" Lantern says "in light of what happened to Jonah, I just wanted to say"…Lantern searches for the right words "if you need anything, I'd be more than happy to help"

"He means all of us," adds Batman "Clark already said it was fine for you to stay at the tower if you wanted, or accept any invitation of the league members. And, if you don't mind me saying, Jonah would be proud of you."

"That is very kind of you both" says Kaya, "I hope you don't mind _me_ saying that Jonah would appreciate all of your compassion." She smiles and leaps into the brush like an uplifted doe, out of earshot from the other two heroes.

"Is she the best choice to continue the mission? I don't know about this, Bruce. Even if it is a good thing. I've never seen someone recover so quickly, alien species or not, from the death of a close guardian" says John tentatively, "you don't suppose that Static and Gear had something to do with it, do you?"

"She needs them now, Static and Gear should get used to being around the League, and as for the mission, she checks out in the Martian's book" says Batman curtly " besides, it's about time we had new recruits, league members tend to slack off a bit these days", he ends, smirking at John and picking up speed into the forest.

"And they say you have no sense of humor" counters Lantern with a bemused look, darting after Kaya and Batman with a marine's pace.

…

As he wakes up, Static sees the ghost of the blinding light burned into his retinas as he picks himself up from the ground, stiffly moving his legs one at a time. His eyes roam around him until they find-

"GEAR!" Static yells with panic. Now he remembers. Richie had managed to throw him out of the way and get a shot at Alan's leg before he disappeared, and that was why both of them were still alive. Static runs to Gear's defeated form and turns him over gently, taking in the damage. Backpack detached itself from Gear's shoulders and moved out of the way, offering bandages which Virgil gratefully took. It was a hit to the side that looked closely like a third degree burn, just below the lungs, and like Jonah's wound, it was worse that it should have been, and was changing into hideous colors, bleeding one moment and an ugly green the next. When Static tried to dress it, the spot burned, or rather ate through the bandages with blood, rot and age; he threw them away, no longer wishing to touch the wound and cause more harm.

"Gear? Oh no…C'mon bro wake up, can you hear me? Richie wake up, please, talk to me!" Static says anxiously

"Virg?" Gear says weakly "what…happened?"

Static exhales a breath he didn't know he was holding and takes off his own jacket to free his arms, draping it over Richie, who has begun to shiver.

"You took a hit, so don't try to move, I know you're okay now, so try not to talk unless you have to, okay? You'll be alright" says Static hurriedly, propping Richie's head on a patch of grass, "I'll make sure of it."

Gear coughs roughly, clutching his stomach in pain as Static tries to keep him still. Backpack clips a wire from its bionic leg to Richie's arm, a screen flipping up from its side, and begins to monitor the heart rate; his chest heaves with the effort of dragging in each breath and beads of sweat roll down his forehead. Static knows enough to recognize the meaning of the slowed chords that meander across the screen, and looks from the display to Richie, trying to keep a calm face.

"Backpack…" Gear gasps "access AX9K57…mark D". Backpack opens up in the opposite side to reveal a compartment with a silver gauntlet, a lightning emblem welded to it; he takes the glove and explains: "this is the latest version of the amp…it will increase your powers by ten…use it to-" Richie grunts in pain again from the burn, drawing his breath in low gasps.

"Rich, I don't…I can't-you… you'll have to work with it more after we, after _we_ get out of here …" Static says, not succeeding at hiding the pain in his voice; Virgil keeps talking to him, trying to keep him conscious. Using the last of his waning strength, Richie takes the metal glove and pulls it on Virgil's hand.

"I don't know about me, bro," Richie says, "but you have to… protect them now." He locks the metal clasps together on the gauntlet, fusing the steel to Virgil's wrist with a ringing clamor, like armor. "Protect them…Static" says Gear, barely exhaling the words, and he closes his eyes, and his hands slowly fall to the ground.


	7. Rage and Reasoning

The monitor dwindles to a low beat as Static stands up, his eyes pulled into a livid glare. Something inside him has snapped; he can't remember anything accept the piercing fury and blinding pain inside of him as he begins to stride away, balling his silver hand into a fist. Lightning begins to erupt from his hands so that the surrounding trees groan in protest as they're lashed with his passage. His eyes even burn with energy so that he can barely see anything except bright white fire in front of him. All of Static's magnetized aura burns and flashes in purple and white bursts of thunder shock resonating through the ground fifteen miles around him like an earthquake. The power bleeds into the sky like the slow motion of a meteor hitting the ground, its tail catching the sky with fire. Alan's ghostly form, clad in the same roughed pair of jeans and t-shirt, steps in front of Static, unshaken by the terrible display resounding off of the sky and surveying Static with a glare. His leg is still weakened by Richie's hit. Miraculously, the trees do not catch fire as the air even crackles with the unleashed energy, and Static had not even used the amp yet. Empowered by the steady hum of the gauntlet's help, Static sprints toward him with his glove pulled back, his eyes almost as wild as Alan's with endalite power. Swiping back and forth at around the same unearthly speed, Static manages to punch Alan in the face, causing him to face plant into a boulder, shattering it like glass. The noise is ear-splitting and can be heard a good distance away, where four heroes are now on a mission to recover the lost

…

"I'm not the only one that heard that, right?" Kaya says tentatively, listening for more sounds

"Negative, it sounds like a fight's just started; my telepathy is picking up three entities west of our position" J'onn says, flying low now.

"Let's hurry, we might be needed" Lantern says

"Good idea" Batman agrees, and the four speed off to the origin point of the sound

…

Static throws Alan literally into the ground, punching him repeatedly in the face so much so that the ghost is unwilling to put up as much of a fight as before. The earth breaks away with the force of the endalite like a miniature explosion, and from his previous ability of being intangible; Alan falls bodily into the cavern that houses the core. Static jumps after him into the opening and stands up, his eyes and hands lighting the dark like industrial flares. The core is a giant crystalline sphere in the corner of the underground cavity, and it throws off hints of blue as sunlight falls on it, its power spurting up into the ceiling as though it were a fountain; obviously, destroying this thing would crash the domed field. He looks from Alan to the core, deciding which to deal with first. Looking at Alan for an eternity, Virgil defers to the corner. Alan wasn't worth it at this point. He would honor Richie's request instead. A bright white flash darts in front of Static, blocking his path to the core, which pulses with energy at this move, like an insanely huge heart. A whale's heart. A dark heart. Static glares and knocks Alan into the wall like a ragdoll.

"You're lucky that Kaya still thinks you're worth saving" he seethes "very lucky", and with that he punches him out and Alan falls to the floor, alive, but looking dimmer. He moves on to the core. This must have been like the fifteenth power core he had to mess with, having electric powers, only this time he was going to fry it, not drain it. The fact that he needed to destroy it seemed to make little difference. The core heart began beating faster, like a human heart would before its destruction, like it knew what was coming, that it would cease to be in this world, like it was alive. More like pretending to be alive: an imposter, a fiend, a machine, not a soul. He didn't care what it looked like; it couldn't fool him this time; this thing would go to pieces for what it did to Richie. Energy flashed around his hand and the cave rumbled as he thought about it, even the core looked like a dying flashlight compared to Static, who reached his silver gloved hand out toward the core, to drown the room in light. The domed field outside thins out to the point of being slightly clear from an ocean blue, and members of the league can partially see into the cloudy rainforest, but still cannot fully penetrate it. A keening high pitched sound filled the air and then a gigantic blast, as the core was obliterated from its place, leaving a gaping hole in the ground. Static jumps out of the fissure and walks off slowly, his eyes coldly flashing with power, unimpressed.

Nothing can be seen now of Static's form, only a miniature scale sun with flashes of lightning surrounding it in the middle of an Amazon jungle. Batman, Lantern, Kaya and the Martian come into the clearing. Kaya is out in front, and her sleeves and skirt and Martian and Batman's capes threaten to sweep them into the wind as though a twister had hit.

"STAAAATIIIIIIIC!" Kaya yells over the noise with two hands cupping around her mouth as a megaphone, slowly and loudly like they were at opposite ends of a stadium. "WHAAAAAAAT'S GOING OOOOON!" The ground rumbles and cracks, pushing the integrity of her footing to the limit.

"Kaya don't go near him, that electricity will fry you alive!" the Lantern shouts, forming a bright green barrier between them and Static, "We have to get him to calm down first!"

"We have to end this soon- it's slowly accelerating; any more and he'll break the barrier, then ignite the atmosphere!" Batman adds, craning to get a look at the height of the burst.

"Where's the Martian?" Lantern asks, peering around with confusion. Somehow J'onn had disappeared from sight.

"_Here_" J'onn says, contacting Batman telepathically.

"J'onn has something, hold on" Batman informs Lantern. He focuses his mind on the Martian's words.

"_Go ahead_"

"_Bruce, I know what happened- its Richie,_" he says, _"Static thinks there is nothing to be done…that Richie is-"_

"_Is there anything we can do?"_ Bruce cuts across

"_That's why I need you to come, I found him and he's in bad shape_"

"John, use the Lantern core to get Kaya to the top of the barrier so she can get through and get Clark over here," Batman commands, "after that try to talk to Static, do what you can to cool him down. I'll be back". And with that, he disappears into the woods.

"_Take a left_" the Martian says to his subconscious, and he turns, to find the Martian taking Richie's pulse.

"How is he?" Batman asks, kneeling beside J'onn.

"Bad enough, this is no ordinary wound." Martian answers, "It changes quickly, his ability to recover is being taken away by the demand of energy from the residue around it, which I conclude is endalite; he's unconscious from the pain. If there were a way to counter the endalite Gear should be able to heal on his own. Before I treated him it was as though the wound was 2 weeks old, then two seconds old, then 5 days old all in the space of 10 minutes, all infected and without treatment, a slow torture over time spans; he is either quite strong or quite fortunate to have survived this long, and the injury was not large. The wound has improved with a Drithian antibiotic, but he is still dying from this change." he finishes, saddened by his own diagnosis.

"So it's confirmed that this compound interferes with the timestream. It's regrettable we had to find out like this. When this is over I'll see that it's disposed of or locked in priority storage, before anyone else can use it, or anything else like this happens. What do you think about getting him back to the tower? Can he be moved at all?" Batman asks, impressed with Gear's resilience.

"His breathing has eased now since I gave him a sedative; hopefully he won't burn through it all at once again with the fever he keeps catching as that wound changes. I brought an engineered compound used to handle endalite in Star Labs, it should make a good enough bandage to keep him from loosing any more blood, but that's all I can do. I would say he has the best chance at living if we move him now. But only _one _time if we can help it" J'onn adds, trying to be positive while disagreeing with Batman's idea before he can say it "it may be dangerous for Richie."

"I've you've read my thoughts then you know that Static has to see that Richie's alive in order to calm down," Batman says testily, now administering a green vial of liquid into Richie's arm, "and that's key if we don't want two world threatening problems on our hands."

…

"Ready Kaya?"

"Check" she says, giving John a thumbs up

Arching his arm like an Olympic discus thrower, John whips his Lantern energy, lashing the green pad Kaya is standing on with tremendous force, sending her flying up to the top surface of the bubble like a rocket. Pinning her arms ahead for speed like Superman, she focuses her shadowy energy all the way from her toes to her fingertips, half protecting herself from the lighted bursts coming at her from Static's field below, finally stabbing through the top, to land feet first on the lightly blue demi-sphere, gazing toward the sun. Although it felt like being a giant on top of the world, her thoughts lead her to Static, and Gear- She knew that something had happened; the only question was what-what could have happened that Batman would not mention? He had rushed out of there with 'that' look-she knew 'that' look from years of learning under a master almost as stern, and that it meant…..but now she should focus. '_They'll be fine. I can trust them…' _Quickly pressing her hand to her ear, she contacts Superman and the rest of the aerial party. The pentagonal shield glowed blood red in the sun. As Superman flew up to her kingdom on top of the world, she thought she should be more concerned about the mission, but it was just exiting to meet him again, having only met once before, and she was very young back then.

"Yes sir, Batman said that you were needed to get through to Static" she answers as she finishes informing him of the situation.

"Wait-you mean he won't listen to _Lantern_?"

Clark is surprised. They had met only a few times before and even he could tell that Green Lantern was the one Virgil looked up to the most.

"Yes" she says despondently, "he is…in great pain. Bruce thinks that you are the only one who can get close enough for him to even hear you, and we have to do it fast" she ends.

"Right, let's go" Superman agrees. Clark carried her Lois Lane style back into the shield, her powers granting them passage; she couldn't say that she did not enjoy being carried by Superman. '_The girls back home will never believe this', _she thinks, giggling inside her head in spite of the situation. She had a feeling that the field had gotten weaker when they passed through, but the feeling did not last long. Once both of them were inside, the flaming lightning had gotten twice as big in her absence, it seemed. And the Green Lantern was not having any luck convincing Static to power down, nor did he manage to come within 20 feet of him because of the immense electrical field.

"Gear!" Kaya breathes in shock, as Martian phases out of the trees and materializes with Richie unconscious in his arms, looking worse for wear. Kaya rushes over while taking a metal device from her pack and examines the wound.

"How is he?" she says, now adjusting Richie's arm for blood circulation.

"Still alive, but not for long unless we can stop the endalite-" J'onn says urgently, putting Richie on a grassy patch of land.

"-The endalite?" Kaya cuts across incredulously, looking behind her at the Martian in confusion "_This_ is a result of the acceleration?"

"The time distortion theory applies here; I observed it in Gear's injuries" he answers patiently.

"I ask your forgiveness sir, I was…surprised…" Kaya trails off, her cheeks carrying a red hint from speaking in such a way to a superior. She laughs to herself: _"heh…if Jonah heard me say that I'd be in for it when we got home…cleaning duty until I fell asleep standing up…"_

"It's alright" J'onn says understandingly

"Maybe if we can get him far enough away from here the endalite effect will weaken," she says, turning her attention back to Gear "if there were only some way to-I need Static! He can help me cure Gear!" she sputters, her face wild with revelation.

Superman looks toward the young, bright star in the growth, mustering his best poker face. But then he remembers the skinny black kid from Dakota… with the goofy jokes and the steel heart, who reminded the entire league about the power in friendship, in trust, and he thinks: '_no, that won't be needed, this is Static'_

"I'm on it" he says simply, walking into the billowing current.


	8. Healing under Fire

"Static?" Clark shouts over the noise, walking forward with his elbow in front of his eyes against a high voltage wind, it feels like walking against gale force winds until he comes to what looks like the eye of the storm, a purple room of light and swirling energy. An outline of Static Shock's figure appears against the powerful walls. What materializes as Clark steps closer is Virgil Hawkins, and he is looking down at his shoes, and does not say anything as Superman puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Virgil?"

Static gasps as he turns and sees the Man of Steel looking back at him.

"What's going on?" Virgil asks, taking a few steps back.

"I was hoping you could tell me" Superman replies, surprised at the peaceful surroundings. Virgil looks down to the floor and tells him the truth, having nothing to hide inside his own subconscious.

"The last thing I remember is…that…I let my best friend get killed because I had to make a move. Next thing I know I-I can't see anything, I just…feel…everything" Virgil says with hesitation, as though he were trying to remember something more important.

"Static, we need to get back, Gear is still alive, and you can help him if you-"

"But I can't remember anything!" Static protests over him "How do I even know that you're real?" Virgil sighs with confusion and sits down on the ground, despite the presence of a chair that materializes out of the solid purple of the wall on his motion. _'The energy'_ Superman reasons _'…his wants... the memory loss…maybe that's it…hope this works'_

"Static?"

"Yea?"

"Where's Alan?"

The memories start flooding back with a headache; Superman takes cover from the wrath of Static's subconscious and Static screams in pain as the all those memories de-actualize and flood into his brain like so many hot pokers into a cache of water, thinking everything all at once, hearing their voices: Kaya, Gear, the courage to face death, the courage to face danger, she had lost her father, _"Where's Alan! What did you do with him?" _ Virgil had lost his mother, "_you have to protect them"_, she had lost both her parents, "_you two give me so much hope", _he was about to lose his best friend, "_so don't loose it in this forsaken place", _ he wouldn't…no…he can't let that happen… "_please come back…please come back"_, he couldn't let Gear die…Richie, no, he can't…it-its my fault… can't give in…gotta get back…can't stay here… "_Protect them, Static"…_don't go…no…

"NOOOOOOOO!" Static screams, the energy flowing back into him and finally stopping. Superman is thrown out of the energy like a javelin to land on top of a tree 20 feet from where J'onn and the others have gathered; he recovers quickly and flies back down to the group. Static stands silently like an animated light puppet for and instant, and then the light falls from his eyes and he drops to his knees, bowing his head in exhaustion and falling on his side, apparently asleep. Batman is quickly over at his side, waking him up and providing him a shoulder to lean on as he slowly walks toward where Gear is.

"m' fine, sorry Batman, 'bout the scare…" Virgil mumbles to Batman, out of breath

"Relax, we've had worse"

Kaya takes over for Bruce, holding Static close to her in a crushing hug like she wouldn't let go, and he actually coughs in her embrace. As worn out as he was with destroying the core, he truly felt like a hero for the first time that day when she hugged him; he could be on his feet for a few more minutes. It wasn't like Daisy's hugs, but it was pretty good.

"Welcome back" she says, her voice breaking through what was almost a sob. The barrier surrounding them begins to recede from the center of the field into the ground and dissolves to a nearly invisible film.

"Teleportation and com links should be back now" the Martian says

"Seven incoming, stand by for transport" Batman commands into his earpiece.

"Bruce is that you? Thank God! We have a situation up here!" Shiara says urgently into the earpiece

…

'_Rise, human, utilize your legs, they are not entirely damaged'_ the voice snarls cruelly, _'if you want the power you will have to earn it, everything has a cost, you know, you never get something for free'_ the cold endalite voice says. Its message is not as nearly as loud as it had been earlier, when it was close to a drill sergeant shouting in your face. Now it was a loud whisper.

"_How do I know you'll follow through with what I want anyway? You don't even have enough strength left to keep anyone here with that barrier. No one left but me to feed on for your power!" Alan hisses back_

'_That can be dealt with easily. A new proposition.'_

"_I'm listening."_

'_I could take that so called watchtower apart with the use of your body as a final vessel. It will require you to-'_

"_I get it. I will hold my end of the bargain, and take out the Justice League, bringing them down here for your use, and you will give me the rest of all your energy at my disposal now. Only question is: why would you trust me?"_

'_The opportunity outweighs the risk'_

"_Deal-" _"AAAAAAAUUUUUUGGHH!"

With that, a terrible spine-shivering scream splits across the walls, as agreed. An eerie light shoots up into the sky, signaling the Watchtower's new arrival.

…

The light readjusts and the seven are in the transport bay, where league members are mobilizing to deal with the visitor, who is now tearing through the masses of heroes on the main deck. Kaya, Gear and Static hail a medical team coming towards them to make sure Richie is stable.

Static looks to the wall on the left side at the injured that have already crossed Alan's path: "Batman, I've fought this thing and beaten it-it's wicked strong, do you want me to-" he says.

"_We've_ got this; you're needed in the infirmary" Batman answers, racing off with Lantern toward the main deck.

"Right." Static responds, following Kaya and the medical team. The crew arrives in the large white medical room. He had not seen Richie up close until now. They had gotten him on a table, already running tests and monitoring his vitals; he was looking bad…worse than when Static had left him. Kaya looked at the monitor once, and flew into action.

"5 ccs of thyceradryl, NOW! Kaya says, ripping white bandages with speed. Nurse! Elevate the feet here, mind his head, now someone get me an oxygen tank"

The nurse hurries over with two small metal plates, adjusting and testing them over a blond teen resting on the white table. Kaya reads the charts in the opposite corner with a calm but serious face.

"Ma'am the paddles are inoperative." The nurse says automatically

"What?"

"Inoperative, ma'am, I think the tower has taken a hit to the core" she repeats.

"Someone get in contact with J'onn-tell him to divert all the power he can spare to med bay, we've got a _serious case_!" Kaya yells over the confusion. League doctors and nurses were bringing in the injured from the fight with Alan and trying to take care of them as well in the same room because there were so many. Some of the less unfortunate members even volunteered to take a bandage and deal with their blows themselves out of the ward, so that the nurses could be free to help Kaya. Kaya commanded like an M. D., and got confused looks from some of the others who noticed how young she was.

Richie's heart rate monitor drops to a low, cold pace and Static feels the display screaming his friend's impending doom. _'Alright'_ Kaya thinks. The sound alone seemed to chain Static in his fury at himself, standing there...unable to do… anything.

Static feels a tiny prickle in his arm for when his regret and anger arrived; he looks down toward the glove, and holds it up to his face. What had happened? That twinge…Was this glove responsible for that cage of light?

"Static, get OVER here, I need you...STATIC!"

Static jumps out of his thoughts and into action at the sound of her voice, takes the silver gauntlet from his hand and tosses it in the corner with a loud clank, and rushes to Kaya's side.

"I need you with me and in control, or you know what might happen," she starts, taking in the monitors in the back and checking vital signs with impatience while moving what remains of Gear's shirt out of the way of his chest. Kaya studies Virgil's face.

"Will you do it for Richie's sake, Virgil?"

"…yes."

"Alright, one hand here on the left just above the chest, the other one here on the right, now, do you know how one volt feels?"

"Yea"

"Absolutely no more than 60 volts, even considering the bang baby makeup he's very fragile- ready, and clear" she says, holding an oxygen mask already for respiration.

Gear's chest jumps lightly, his head lolling to the side, and Static feels his own heart drop to his stomach, ready to puke both of them up while watching his own actions. He mechanically follows her orders without question. Richie's chest yields again and again to the shocks, with no response.

"C'mon, Gear, you've got it in you, stay with us-" Kaya hisses under her breath as she gives him oxygen between shocks.-"nurse, I recommend that most of the personnel that can be spared leave the room, this could get messy"

"yes ma'am"

Many of the nurses and orderlies scramble out of the ward, some carrying injured, some injured leaning on others, and some just taking their IVs and heading off themselves; Kaya, Static, Gear, the nurse and only a few others remained, giving the atmosphere an abandoned feel, but more room to breathe.

"Got a rhythm, but it won't last long at this rate; we'll have to do it now. Ready?" Black midnight drapes over her eyes, and shadow almost fills the room. Lacing the fingers of her right hand on top of her left on Richie's chest, she concentrates her power right where the heart is and down to the arteries healing to the wound.

"Do it."

"Both of us, it has to be simultaneous" she orders. Static places his hands on top of hers. "On three, one, two-"

The room fills with darkness and purple flashes, and then light encompasses the entire room. _'Richie, please choose to come back. It's your choice, but please, choose to come back…please come back'_ Kaya thinks desperately. Static and Kaya's powers rush back into them. Virgil looks on the white table to see a pair of green eyes looking at him through half open lids. He catches his breath as he looks back at Richie, gasping and breathing heavily with lungs that had forgotten how to breathe for a while; the tears come freely as he falls into the calm dark. A pair of arms catches him before he hits the floor.


	9. I trust you

"Unhhhhh…" Richie moans, clearly alive, but not enjoying it at the moment. He opens his eyes to find Kaya's red nailed hands adjusting the IV over his head, with a strong look of duty, as though this was a final exam.

'_I thought I'd died and gone to heaven for a second there…haha…Virgil would kill me for that joke'_…he thinks_._ '_Huh, I'm not as bad as I thought I would be, the pain is barely here anymore_.'

Just to see what would happen he sits up. Kaya allows him to have a moment before asking questions, the motion was with, again, hardly any pain, as though the ordeal had all been in his head. '_Okay, they're not telling me something, because I know I shouldn't be able to do this'._ Could it really have been just a dream? He feels through the bandages for the scar in his side, and finds several small healed over lines, wincing as he ran his fingers over them. '_Alright, well, at least that makes sense'._ He looks at Kaya with confusion; she flashes him a wide smile and sits down on his bed, chiming "you're awake! How do you feel?"

"Well, to tell you the truth I'm starving…and…uhh…oh yea, confused…very confused…about being…here…alive. How did you-where's Static?" he suddenly remembers with panic, Virgil looked terrible last time he saw him "Is he-"

"Okay? Yes. Worried about you? Duh, so take it easy." She answers, again with the innocent smile. She eyed his still concerned face and elaborated. "He took some damage, and while he was in shock, so you two will see each other, but later, don't you worry. He's resting now, like you should."

Richie snickers at the pun Kaya was so unaware of, and lays back down looking at the small window to his right featuring twinkling stars in a black background, becoming aware of the fact that he is in the watchtower. He smiles to himself. _'Can't ignore me that easily…'_

"How did you find the cure for that strike?" Gear asks, more professionally in a disinterested tone.

"Why did the shield hold up?" Kaya asks playfully. Richie looks at her with raised eyebrows, and then smirks deviously.

"You first, hurt remember?" Richie contends, putting on a teasing fake grimace for her amusement. Kaya laughs and concedes

"OK _puny earthling_, I'll go first. And I'll skip the brain eating for later" she giggles

"_Don't even joke_" says Richie dramatically with a big smile

Kaya doubles over in laughter this time with tears of laughter in her eyes, and she sits in a chair beside Richie's bed to fill him in. She starts from her departure into the forest to the barrier, leaving room for many questions. Distractedly, she makes a vase of dark purple lilies from her powers that would shimmer in the light and glow in the dark like stars for his bedside table, stretching the petals and pulling the stems like a master craftsman while resting her eyes solely on her newfound friend.

"Hey Diana," Kara whispers "come over here!" Supergirl had been spying on the scene through the black one-way observation window. Kaya had been her friend since she arrived at the tower a few months ago, and had been totally cool about sparring with her despite her reputation as Superman's cousin. Kaya was the one she came to with questions about health stuff or alien sickness, since Bruce was always busy and Jonah was nice, but kind of intimidating, to top all of that, she was a girl her age, who dealt with like 97% of the issues she did as a heroine. Kaya was cool and honest, and a bit of a loner. But even the loners in the Justice League usually made it a point to have available contacts, social lives, support, friends…boyfriends. Kara had at least dated a few guys before officially joining the league. Ever since she arrived Kaya kept mainly to herself and stuck to Jonah like glue, save for Kara and a select few others. Dating? Forget it. She always had a line of work ready to do. It made Kara happy to see that she had found someone that made her feel …welcome.

"_Look_ at those" says Kara, pointing through the glass at the dazzling blooms "-how many times has she made those for anybody?"

"To tell you the truth," Wonder Woman answers "this is the first time I've seen her do it"

"How romantic!" Kara sighs, looking back at the lilies. As Batman walks by, Diana seizes the opportunity.

"Yes it is very sweet, don't you think so Bruce?" Diana gives her most angelic smile and Bruce pauses at the scene, and then continues walking with a blank face, obviously to do something important. Wonder Woman and Supergirl burst out giggling in his absence, and then walk away themselves to get back to cleaning up on the station. Bruce stares into the distance as he proceeds down the hall to the hanger bay; '_Welcome to the family'_ he thinks, jumping into the nearest gray and black cruiser. As the engine revs, Bruce Wayne thinks back to the time he first met Kaya.

"_Welcome to the league, Jonah" Batman says ceremoniously_

"_Thank you, I am honored to serve here. I will certainly do my best, but I hardly think I will live up to so many spotless reputations of excellence." Jonah responds, shaking his hand._

"_It's that kind of attitude we need more of here. But your reputation for curing four kinds of cancer on Aorthia doesn't hurt, either." Jonah smiled. A small crash is heard in the next room, then the two heroes turn their heads to hear the pitter patter of two quick little three year old feet, and a little blip of red flashes in front of them with a delighted squeal; Kaya runs over to Jonah, laughing "Jooooobeeeee! _(A/N pronounced 'joe-bee', a pet name for Jonah)_ the star ship is fun! I actimated the bupulsion defice! Come see! Come see!" she demands, pulling at Jonah's shirt. She wears a flowered red sundress, and tilts her curly brown haired head up to Jonah, peering up at him with bright little jeweled eyes, the little fairy to his tall giant._

"_That's wonderful Kaya, but I would like you to meet someone first." She eagerly runs over to stand next to Jonah with bright eyes and both of her hands in her lap._

"_Kaya, this is Bruce Wayne, a good friend of ours." Kaya's eyes grow wide and she walks forward to Batman. She takes his hand and pulls him down to her level, a frown on her face, and he stays on one knee so that she can look him in the eyes, even through his mask, with her little lips in a pout, as though she were trying to figure something out. Her frown deepens in concentration until suddenly her face breaks into a wide grin and she declares:_

"_Looks like your soul is guarded with a lot of stuff, but I can tell you're really nice! I'm glad we're gonna be friends!"; looking at Jonah's raised eyebrow, she steps back and adds shortly "Oh-and it is very nice to meet you, sir" with a curtsy. Batman gives her half a smile and nods, standing up. Kaya stays for about thirty seconds and runs off to the right_

"_Her English is impressive for her age" Batman comments, "like her evasion tactics. I though Flash was watching-"_

"_-Sorry" Wally interrupts, speeding to a sudden stop in front of them and scooping a delightfully surprised Kaya into his arms "she's a quick one when you're not looking". Flash races off at a slower pace with her clinging to his back, laughing: "Yaaaaaaayyyy! You found me! Let's get iced gream Wally!"_

"_I believe she likes you very much" Jonah says, watching Kaya disappear in a red flurry._

"_Seems so; was that the Aorthian gift of insight you were telling me about? That can detect hostilities by sensing them with the optic nerves?"_

"_Yes, she inherited that…along with-"_

"_Sorry."_

"_Bruce, you remember what I told you about the circumstances under which I adopted Kaya, right?" Jonah asks_

"_If you want help with this Jonah, the league has many resources"_

"_I've looked into this too many times, if-" Jonah answers tersely, and then he looks at Batman uncertainly, "thank you for that, I'm sorry, I do appreciate that, the process is just…"_

"_How close are you to a cure?"_

"_No where near where I should be. The condition is uncertain now. I don't even know if she will live long enough for me to tell her or whether it is entirely nothing. This thing has accelerated her aging process, and if that isn't slowed somehow she'll… How to tell her…My God I am an awful father" Jonah puts his face in his hands and sits down on a bench, looking a nervous wreck from two minutes ago "…I can't even tell her the truth…I don't… know how to," he says agonizingly "and it has to be me, it should be me, I'm responsible for her and she must know…but I…Bruce, I, if I don't tell her in three days, I want you to-"_

"_-I trust you Jonah, you can find the courage to tell her" _

_Jonah looks at Bruce, his eyes steady now, and he slowly nods. _

"_Thank you."_

"_Jobee! Jobee look at me!" Jonah turns his head to the hallway Kaya is sprinting down "I beat Wally, now I can join the Just-us Leegue and stay up late fighting dis-tease like you! Jonah always beats the dis-teases, and some day I will too. We'll all be superheroes then, and you'll help, right Mr. Wayne?" she says joyfully, running over to Batman with a big smile._

_Batman looks down at Kaya, putting a hand on her shoulder_

"_Yes, I will"_


	10. Recovered

"As for that, my best guess is that the endalite takes energy from emotions, too" Richie explains back in the white recovery room, "Even though Static destroyed the core, the residue of the barrier remained from Static's anger, like it took from my surprise and fear when I first tried to get through it. "

"Emotions? I suppose it's possible. Definitely probable. That means the endalite would have affected me too. I was close to you and Static, and you were already pretty exposed to it. When I lost Jonah, and you two were with me… the endalite, it might have…" Gear could see the wheels turning in her head. He had the same question: Was it him and Static or the endalite that allowed her to get over Jonah's death so quickly? Did the endalite change her? How would she and the rest of them be affected now that the core is destroyed?

Deep inside, the question that Kaya wanted answered most of all bubbled furiously: _'That euphoria I felt, that weight lifted after Jonah let go of my had when he died, when I had been with Static and Gear, it-was my disease that was healed?' _Her heart felt like ice, and her stomach, like a hot spring in July. The closest person she had to a father…Was _that_ what he meant by "the courage?" It was too great a price, but in the end, after all those years and tests and all that pain, Jonah…healed her. Gear broke the horrible silence, to her relief.

"For the complexity it shows this thing may have been a machine that emulates organic material at one time, like Dark Heart, but I'm glad it was no match for it's polar opposites" he smiles into her eyes, and takes her hand, "not by a longshot."

Kaya looks up, taking his hand and allowing a small red flush to creep over her face with his attention. She finishes the lilies with a tall, shimmering vase and immediately looks down at her shoes in an effort to hide her thankful smile, when a low rumble sounds through the tower and her head jerks up, sporting wide eyes. Her brows pull into a glare. Gear is just as uneasy. No doubt Kaya's "former colleague" had broken out of the holding cell for a stroll around the tower.

"Stay here." she tells Gear sternly, and then jumps over the table and races out into the hall, leaving the dark lilies bobbing on the table in the wake of her speed.

…

Virgil Hawkins sits up in a cotton-sheeted white hospital bed in a room not far from Richie's, and abruptly and looks around, an imaginary sledgehammer assaulting his skull, but still alive. He notices a single blue flower in a purple vase next to his bed. A half-stem blue moon colored _daisy_ is blossoming to his right on the sidetable. '_Thanks, Kaya.' _He rises to his feet, and dresses as fast as he can, mask and all. _'I should go see how Rich is doing…' _he thinks intently as he steps into the hallway, only to be nearly flattened by Hawk, Dove, Stargirl, and Green Arrow, who are sprinting in the direction of the transporter room.

"Hey-Omph! Where's the fire guys?" Static says, flattening against the wall for another wave of heroes and heroines to come storming through, not answering him also. The red flash and sounding alarm over his head also denoted a state of emergency. _'This can't be good-I'll see him later…Kaya can handle that, she's practically a miracle worker" _Static runs to the third hallway, taking a different path to avoid being almost trampled again. Another disheveled voice rises from the hum of urgency in the hall, to which Virgil flips his head around and almost off.

"Hey! Easy man, that rib just healed this morning! Naw, it's cool, get going." To his astonishment he finds Gear jogging toward him. But Virgil was too relieved to see Richie alive and walking to be shocked.

"Richie!"

"Hey man, did you hear that alarm? I think Alan's back-omph!"

Richie didn't have a choice as Virgil pulled him into half a hug. But with all the care of a full hug, and all the years that they had been friends.

"First of all, are you okay? I know Kaya didn't tell you that you could be running around here like nothing stabbed you in the gut."

"I'm fine, really. And she did tell me to stay put, but she underestimated how good of a job she did."

"Is that you or your hormones talkin, Casanova?"

Gear blushed: "'Foreswearing my sight that I never saw true hotness' and everything, but in case you guys forgot, I have the only laser on this lousy tower that can bring Alan _down_, remember?" said Gear, showing off the new, shiny addition to his right arm.

"Oh right."

"I figured I could give it to Flash because he's fast enough to get a good shot, but you could try it out, too I guess, if worse comes to worse…"

Virgil punched his arm playfully, and the two kept running, searching the decks for other league members and news on Alan's whereabouts, and just to break the silence Static brings it up

"So…you and Ka-ya huuuh?" Static says with teasing inflection, nudging Richie on the shoulder.

"Yeah" said Gear, spacing out once more. Static notices this and tries to keep their talk going so that he would focus-Richie could really mess up or even hurt himself in this case when there wasn't something to focus on-Gear without something to think about was like Sherlock Holmes without a mystery.

"You gonna ask her out?"

"Aw come on V, she's probably got like half the guys on this ship lined u-"

"She's already into you, man"

"I'm waiting for the right moment"

"If you don't, I will" said Virgil with a firm tone

"V, Don't do me any favors…"

"All right, all right…"

"I mean it"

"Sure."

_I mean it, Virgil…_

(A/N: skip to the next parenthesis if you don't want to read all the heartbreaking drama: main points are that Richie has decided that he loves Kaya romantically and not Virgil for many reasons, but does not love Virgil any less as a partner and friend, and this reflection may or may not be a result of the endalite messing with emotion, ect., ect., I know I have impatient readers who want action and stuff )

Richie thought about that. He also thought about how many times in the past a girl had been interested in him, and he could count that on both hands, give or take. The point was; it wasn't that often. He thought about what Kaya had said to him; it was what she remembered about Jonah's lesson back when they were talking in the recovery ward. '_Love, in this sense,' _Jonah had said, '_means learning to let go of the fear of your own safety or peace of mind for the sake of another person's welfare.' _Virgil…how many times had he been so close?…and now, with Daisy. Ughh. It hurt just to think about it. He was Virgil's best friend and he had no idea what he really felt about Daisy. If he asked he was sure Virgil would suddenly 'have something important to do'. He and Virgil were practically brothers, but some time ago he had figured that personal stuff like that should be kept to yourself. Personally he hated it when Virgil got like that; he would randomly get defensive about Daisy _even_ when they were joking. Daisy Daisy Daisy. He thought so many times about telling Virgil before then, and always pulled back for their friendship- he honestly couldn't imagine loosing Virgil permanently for any reason. Never. The thought was like someone put his stomach in a freezer and filled his heart with needles-jagged, burning needles. Then Daisy and Virgil started going out. Tell him after they broke up? If that even happened? That kind of thinking was slimy. He could never trust himself to not wish it would happen until it did. But still, would he hurt Virgil like that? He could just say that he loved Virgil and would do anything for him-so would a drunken prom date. Or he could just allow Virgil to do anything to make himself happy-so would a suicidal adrenaline junkie with an extra jumping cord. But that isn't love, it's self-serving, what "made somebody happy", isn't always the best thing for them.

Happiness and love aren't the same thing, he knew that. And he couldn't think of any reason why his feeling of wanting Virgil was more than, at bottom, just wanting to be happy. His entire life, that simple feeling was so hard to come by, what with his father's…personality, and his interests being different than most people. He had never _really_ felt powerful, in control, or happy in his life, and then he met Virgil for the first time, and everything became bearable, fun, alive again. Every time he wanted to prolong that happiness. Never wanting to be away from it. The pain went away. Maybe that was why-he felt like he deserved it, it was hard to say or even think about it that way, but he knew it was true. He didn't think it hurt anybody, it was a good thing, wasn't it? Being together might make both of them happy, if only for a short time. But that isn't love, it's not friendship, it's just 'being happy'. If he just cared about happiness, then what? He would be no different than the others. All he would defend is their "happiness" if their relationship ever got in trouble. And how would he defend it then, and where would that end? He cared about Virgil more than that. So what about the pain? He would have braved anything to be with Virgil earlier, couldn't he be that brave now, because it would be better for Virgil, Daisy, him and their friendship to accept V&D as a couple? But the thought of being a third wheel to their life, thrown away, the poor sap you hang out with out of pity, tore him apart again. He would do this because it was the right thing to do. He had resolved before they took this mission that he would take the help to shut this demon away permanently, and make sure it was done if it was the last thing he did, even without help. _Without help…those words had hurt the most of all…he had never had the courage to ask anyone for help about this, who could?…_

And then…and then he met _Kaya._ He had never met someone like her before. Figures, no girl on _Earth_ had made him feel so strongly to surpass Virgil. Thinking about that, about her, her face, her eyes, made him feel warm, comfortable, like nothing was so important or nothing mattered so little as what they were.

In love.

It was incredible. And he could never be more sure than he was that she felt the same way. He didn't feel that pang of guilt he felt when he went out with other girls to keep the stigma going that he was, in fact, 'male' because he went out with girls, all the while wishing that he could just come out and tell everyone. Thinking each time he tried, if he could just laugh, just smile while thinking about him and Virgil together everything would be okay. It never was. The pain multiplied with interest with every casual glance, every brush against his arm, every quick look. When he met her, it was as though he found his helper, his angel. While he was with Kaya… it was beyond thinking 'oh look, they were right, liking girls is better, big deal.' He wasn't even thinking. Not about anything. Certainly not about that. And his brain has been known to set itself on fire with thoughts on simple metaphysics and dimensional theory. He wouldn't think about a damn thing, except standing beside her, doing-whatever, but as long as she was with him. Just to _be with her; _all it took was her touch and he felt alive, like floating. Every facet of his body breathed easier.

He wasn't a square peg in a square hole. That was trivial, simple minded trash. He was a man in love. And it felt like being alive. He had not been sure before, but he was now. That knowledge, that gut feeling, that fact, whatever it was, took away any pain or reserve he had, thinking that he loved Virgil less as his best friend and partner.

(STATIC SHOCK- Hi, continue here awesome readers of awesomeness and have a nice day )

"Earth. to. Richard. Foley_."_ Static says emphatically, waking Richie from his thoughts with a hand waving back and forth in front of his face.

"Sorry"

"Dang you're spacey today Rich, I thought I might have to wake you up with a little juice" Static says with a devious smile as his fingers light up with purple flashes; they turn a corner and Static is hot on Gear's trail, who sped up a little at Virgil's comment.

"Oh no you don't, V-Did I tell you yet how that hurt like hell?" banters Richie, ducking for the second time.

"Yea, well, as long as you're _awake_, you think you can help me take ghostie down?" says Static, his fist outstretched. Richie returned the handshake, feeling better than he had felt in a long time.

"It would be my pleasure, V-man!"

Both Static and Gear come to a stop at the entrance of the engineering deck.


	11. Confrontation

After running swiftly through the walls and hallways, riding the shadows for better speed, Kaya reaches the holding bay in the lower decks, which had been busted open; shards of steel littered the floor. The league had managed to corner Alan into one of the high risk security cells and had locked it until the right security detail could escort him to a better holding facility (_preferably off-planet! _she thinks vehemently). He didn't seem to resist the arrest after the few minutes; apparently it was to let his strength build until he could escape again. Everyone had been taking care of Justice League injured earlier, so she reasoned that he escaped during the commotion by distracting the guards. Kaya searched the main deck, the lido deck, the holo deck, the lower, fore and aft decks, and every last space in between, and finally found him in the engineering deck that contained the power core. Sliding out from behind the shadow of the huge archway, she focused her glare at Alan, and took her time to approach him. He didn't move as she got closer, only to stop at about five yards close to him. She was also wary of Alan's advantage; he was right next to the ship's main stabilization and power switches. He looked worse than before, his appearance was more disheveled, hair messier, and he looked like he had been cheated out of sleep for a week. Still, he held himself high, as though (if only to himself) he was the picture of confidence.

"Where is that charming new friend of yours, Kaya? I would very much like to meet him." Alan says icily, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

She never would have guessed that this man was Alan a few weeks ago; his voice and demeanor were so different now, like it wasn't him at all. She could no longer see Alan's cheery brown eyes that made her smile, that looked up whenever she jumped, looked down whenever she left and looked across a room for her through a crowd; all that was in his eyes was chaotic sameness: a swirling nothing that grew more despairing looking by the hour.

_He came for Gear's laser…_

"The League is on their way, give it up Alan." she responds, falling into a defensive stance, "and Gear is out of your reach while I still live."

"So he's alive?" the ghost drawls with inflected surprise and satisfaction. In spite of his weaknesses he could still read her like an open book, just like in the old days. Kaya masked the fact that she was slightly terrified at this thought by keeping a stern silence and grave features.

_He wants to kill Gear too? Over my cold dead-_

"Well that is nice to hear, after all, what doesn't kill you does make you stronger, and I speak from experience."

"No one on this ship would follow a murderer" she cut across.

Alan's face betrayed unease. But he stood his ground just as she did.

"All I wanted was respect, even if it was small" he says wanly "to have people listen to me, some power after years of having _nothing_! I never planned to kill anyone at first, in all honesty I just wanted the respect, to have that power, to be on top for once, doesn't everyone deserve that at least _once_?" he thundered.

At this, Static and Gear came to the entrance of the room, defenses raised. But they were willing to let Kaya try and talk Alan down before they fought.

"You can't handle that power and you've proven that enough already"

"I didn't expect you would ever understand what its like to have nothing, to have to live the way I do, living with the doubt, the uncertainty, having this endless pointless knowledge now as I do and be conscious of the fact that nothing will come of it. I now know that there is nothing worth serving let alone laying down his life for. I would take certainty over that pain of uncertainty, something I can see and hear, over excuses that anyone offers me for doing this: not Faith, not Hope, not Courage, and not Love. Especially not Love. I'm done trying to get anything out of Love, done with that sick, masochistic pining for someone who wouldn't give you the time of day unless you worshipped them all the days of your life, and then finally _died for them_!"

Alan locked his gaze with Gear's, who couldn't explain why he immediately felt his heart burn with Alan's speech. Kaya fell silent as Alan looked down with a painful expression.

"What happened between us, Kaya?"

Kaya looked at Alan now, her expression unreadable, and Gear felt the intense need to ask her what she was thinking. She and Alan continued to talk, but Richie's mind reeled into the not-too-distant past about four months ago.

**(A/N) okay people! Really short chapter here, but an ending is near I promise, and yes, this author loves Richie flashbacks, so prepare for like a whole chapter of it cause you know u love it! **

**Richie: "I'm not gonna almost die again am I? My insurance is high enough as it is…"**

**Me: "Hey, at least I give you good screen time…"**

**Virgil: "Oh yeah? What about me?"**

**Me: "AAAUUUUGGHH…trying to think up a really good one with focus…can't…do…EVERYTHING! WAAYY TOO LONG ALREADYYYY!" (whump)**

**Richie: "Is she dead?"**

**Virgil: "These updates don't tell you much different…"**

**Richie: "Drama queen…is it too late to get in on another story?" (sputtering then choking sounds in background)**

**Virgil: "Now I think she really is dead…what if we promised a nice sandwich for the next chapter? Somethin good like Subway or Deli Creations? (do not own either companies lawyer people)**

**Me: "I'm on it okay? I'M ON IT!...and you guys better come through with that sandwich…getting hungry…"**

**Richie and Virgil: "That's the spirit!" "yeah!" "woohooo finally!" (general celebration noises, Richie gets hit with confetti which Virgil laughs at hysterically as the author finally tries to finish this thing…)**


	12. How to honor a hero

**Rose here! Richie's really extremely long flashback is finally here (resulting from too many sad songs at once, beware!) But once again, please please pleeeeeeeaaaase REVIEW! I request constructive ones, but any thoughts or ideas for new chapters are appreciated. Do not own. :D Enjoy!**

(A/N: read this next part while listening to "The Letter That Never Came" from the Series of Unfortunate Events soundtrack (DO NOT OWN), and it might make you cry, I did).

_It was a late night rounding up a huge riot that had broken out in Dakota, including all the gangs and Bang Baby gangs in the city; there were fires, drive-by shootings, theft, vandalism, gunfire, and many other things that he desperately wanted to forget that happened that night, that he had to find out afterward. The fights were so out of hand that the Justice League had agreed to help out after a short call from Batman ("We're needed in Dakota, requesting backup. Now."). Static and Gear had just received their powers for a second time, and Gear was helping control the monster that was Ebon and Hotstreak fused together (Virgil dubbed them: 'Lava Thing') with a zap cap-like energy restraint. The entire police force of Dakota was taking all the help they could get from local heroes, and Static had insisted that he help protect Dakota's finest and the paramedics on scene, while assisting with fire duty. Gear had told him the risk of being so close to the ground in a riot, and remembered him saying: "my mom used to say that 'courage is the testing point of all virtues'(A/N: C.S. Lewis said that); I can't back down from this."_

"_Be careful, bro", Richie responded, clapping his best friend's shoulder. Virgil did the same, and the two went to work. It was nearly dawn, and all the fighting had ebbed with minimal casualties thanks to the JLU and various authorities. Richie was finishing the work of rounding up disgruntled bang babies who were hiding out in the ruins of apartment buildings. He is flying at a low altitude when he hears a shout from a burning building, followed by a huge burst of fire out of the side of the building. Tongues of fire light up the night sky, and Gear can see Static's figure from about 52 yards away through his green visor. Virgil is losing altitude, though he is clearly escaping the huge explosion on his flying disc. As Richie flies toward him, he can see Virgil clutching his shoulder, and then bent over, until finally he collapses onto the nearest rooftop, rolling over from momentum only to be stopped on his back by a metal chimney with a sickening thump._

"_Static!" Richie shouts, turning the heads of the league members on the streets below. _

_Batman is there first after Gear, followed by Superman, Hawk Girl, Green Lantern, Flash, Izna, and Green Arrow, being the closest to the scene. Still others joined them as the scene unfolded. Richie had taken Virgil's pulse and had already begun CPR when Batman slowly moved over to where he was. Blood leaked from behind that familiar pair of goggles and slowly trespassed its way to the white mask. There was massive blood loss from his shoulder; it was a miracle that Virgil stayed airborne for more than a few seconds after inhaling that smoke. Hawk Girl looked from Green Lantern staring firmly at the ground to Superman, who had instead stared firmly at Static's figure for a long second with x-ray vision, and then closed his eyes, furrowing his brow without saying anything. There was a hushed silence, and only Batman would dare speak to Gear as he vehemently continued his attempt to revive Virgil._

"_Virg, no, come on, stay with me, you'll be okay-"_

"_Gear" Batman says respectfully._

"_No, come on Virgil, don't give in…"_

"_Gear, the best thing you can do right now is make him comfortable"_

_Richie gasped, and felt Virgil's pulse again. Slower and slower. Down, down, down. Slowly, he stopped and sat back on his haunches, keeping one hand on Virgil's chest._

"_No." Richie's voice broke over the syllables. " Please God, no." he whispered_

_Superman bowed his head in respect, and the others soon followed suit. Hawk Girl brought her mace over her chest in a salute. Richie put his hand on Virgil's forehead in an attempt to remove his mask, and suddenly, Richie's eyes lit up in a golden piercing glow. The surrounding metal lit up with a keen shine, and everything else lit up in an immaculate glow as a sunset. Air rushed through the rooftops gently as if that brick and mortar contained an entire ocean shore. Somehow, tears flowed from these glowing eyes, as Richie began to remember, and pray. The only thing he could do. He left the mask on Virgil's face. There was no pulse, now, or if there was, he couldn't feel it. But the glow was not the most surprising thing happening. Richie was entirely unaware of any glow, and only had eyes for his best friend right now. The most surprising thing was that all who were present could see, as though watching it happen right in front of them, every one of Gear's memories that he thought of that moment as fast as he did (with his adept memory), starting with when he first met Virgil when both of them were five years old. The memory flickered before the consciousness of everyone who could feel the light like a bright summer day, unobtrusive, light and free. Both of them as kids were playing at Dakota's park, amidst the jungle gym, swings, tag, action figures, and the promise of new friendship..._

"I don't know if I'm doing this right, God, but..."

_The memory changes to another time like a film reel: Virgil giving Richie a high five after they had won their first basketball game together as a team, and afterward they turn it into a new 'super cool' handshake "Omar and Luke's secret fort has got nothing on us now!" an imaginary Virgil shouts._

"I have to make this prayer something real. Virgil is my best friend, a-and I can't do anything to keep him here. But, you can."

_Another flash: Virgil and Richie are in the hallway, and Virgil 'accidentally' pushes Richie into Freida, who, being impressed by Richie's 'confidence' and helpfulness (by picking up her books that he knocked over) asks him to the Fall Festival._

"He was-is...a blessing from you, and I did a lousy job of appreciating that."

_Flash: Richie is just waking up in 'HQ' after being knocked unconscious-__again __"Really, Rich, this is the third time this week if you don't count the time you were kidnapped-"_

"_." Richie counters "-ow" he mumbles, trying to sit up, only to find that the broken rib he had been hiding from his father's last evening off, had been re- bandaged. He makes sure that he hitches his breath silently, hoping Virgil wouldn't notice._

"_Some fight, huh? I didn't even see you get hit in the side." says Virgil matter-of-factly, watching Richie's attempts with a hint of amusement, the triumph bitter and yet necessary._

"_Lay-offs again. Double time. Heavy Drinking. Anger issues. Close proximity to me." Richie sighs. "Do the math"_

"_I'm sorry, man."_

"_What are you sorry for? You're the reason I'm not on the streets...again" Richie smiles bitterly._

"_So, you spending the night or what?" Virgil says cheerfully. The atmosphere changed to an elated lightheartedness, glowing in the edges of the memory._

"_You got it dude-whoa-" Richie trailed off, pretending to be off balance and weak as he attempted to get up off the couch._

"_I've got'cha-" Virgil says worriedly, prepared to catch him._

"_psych!"_

"_-what?"_

_Richie had managed to get Virgil into a super-noogie headlock with this clever rouse, and before both of them knew it, they were running around shouting 'hyudai-yah!' and playing ninja, all until Richie really did need to stop for a breath. Virgil sportingly complied and allowed Richie the last tag._

"This time I can't count it off to superpowers, or coincidence, this time I'll know it really was you."

_Flash: Virgil and Richie are five years old, and both of them are at the funeral of the heroine Gene Hawkins. Mr. Foley had to work, but Mrs. Foley made sure that Richie would be there. Richie had only met Virgil just a few months earlier. The ceremony is honored and embellished by the city, befitting a local hero. The city council had petitioning of making a statue in honor of the fallen heroes of that night that was all but guaranteed. 'It was vewry nice of those people' Virgil thought, 'but I wish I had mommy back to see this. I miss her.' After thinking this, young Virgil's eyes roamed until they found a smaller, more upset Richie Foley. He stood with his mom, tears coming down his face in tiny tracks, just like Virgil's. After Mrs. Foley had lifted him up so he could put a long-stem white rose on the top of Gene's coffin and set him down, Virgil came up to him and gave him a big hug, that Richie returned gratefully._

"_Thanks fow coming, Rwichie"_

"_uh-hunh," Richie says, letting a big sniff out of his tiny button nose._

"_Why are you crying so bad, Rwichie?"_

"_'Cause, Virgil, I'm sowrry that your mommy is gowne. No-body would be nice to me if my mommy was gowne. Awe you saad?" _

"_Daddy says Mommy's gone to heaven and that heaven is nice, so I think she's gonna be o-kaay."_

_Young Richie just sniffed and nodded, but continued to cry, even though Virgil had stopped crying._

"_Rwichie?"_

"_Mnnh-hunh?_

"_I think my mommy would be sad to see you cwry, and now I'm only sad that you're cwrying. I don't like to see you cwry 'cause you're nice to me."_

"_oh-okay" sniffs Richie. Virgil, in that kind of ageless wisdom, could tell that Richie still wasn't okay, and could stand more encouragement._

"_Rwichie?"_

"_Yeah, Virgil?"_

"_If yoour mommy eva goes to see my mommy up in heaven, I'll be nice to you."_

"_okay, Virgil"_

_Still in shock from this display of power, everyone was brought back to their own consciousness from Richie's memories, some of them in tears and others, just silent. It was as though Gear had unconsciously wanted them to feel even a tenth of his loss, and his power had expanded to accommodate and actualize it because of the concentration and the sheer amount of grief. The impact was staggering. Back in the physical world, Gear was now ending his request._

"Please, I don't think all of Dakota, and the League, and the Hawkins family should suffer just because of me, I know I-I might probably deserve this somehow, but, please, let him come back anyway, I know you would bring him back."

_A gasp broke through the air, and then much coughing as Virgil opened his eyes and grasped the hand still on his chest. He even attempted to sit up, at Richie's immediate protest. Cheers broke out from all the Justice League present as Richie pulled him into a big, albeit gentle hug._

"_I'm pretty sure he heard you" said Virgil, giving Richie an angelic smile._

_All Richie could say the rest of that night, and through the day that arose over Dakota as that morning shone in the sky, was: "Thank you, thank you, __thank you.__.."_

The present situation slammed into Gear's mind like a car into a finish line. He realized that his power to transfer thoughts and memories actualized before he came into contact with the endalite. If he had really wanted that badly to heal Virgil, the endalite would have reacted to his emotion immediately, just like with Kaya's powers, the _lack _of emotion caused an immediate reaction. Ever since that night, he was still unsure whether the new power he had was a one-time deal or whether it was a new power. It was not a one-time deal, it was still within reach. He could still access that power without the endalite. His prayer had been answered after all. Richie let a small smile spread across his face in spite of himself.

"I have another idea" he whispered to Virgil

"What?"

"A longshot that will almost definitely work, and end this real quick"

* * *

**Rose: AHHHH! I just can't get out of the misery thing lately!**

**Virgil: We hope you do-and really really soon!**

**Rose: Ugh, yeah sorry about that, eheheh…(sweatdrops)**

**Richie: You need a hobby or something**

**Rose: like what?**

**Richie: I don't know, just something else to write about besides-Comedy! That's it! You need more comedy in your life**

**Rose: I do? Really?**

**Virgil: Sure**

**Rose: well, any ideas?**

**Richie: Virg, you tell her bro**

**Virgil: This is the first time I got nothing, and that's saying something, you're too sensitive Rose**

**Rose: yuuu guys are so meeeaaann waaaaahhhhh-OW! (smacked in the head with a pen) What was that for?**

**Virgil: Get a hold of yourself, girl, you're a writer!**

**Rose: yeah…**

**Virgil: And a writer has a noble profession, defining truths according to his or her own heart!**

**Rose&Rich: Yeah!**

**Virgil: A writer will be remembered having written a story with awesome coolness!**

**Rose&Rich&Virgil: YEAH!**

**Virgil: A writer will update regularly!**

**Rose: YEA-wait, what! Hey, Come back here you two! (They run away) You guys still owe me that sandwich!**

**Virgil (calling back): That's the spirit!**


End file.
